The Best Pizza You Will Ever Eat

One of my biggest goals with The Preppy Vegan is to show you, dear reader, how to eat healthy and compassionately without using lots of "replacement" foods, like soy cheese or Veganaise. I haven't heard very good things about a lot of those type of products. (The words "totally disgusting" have been thrown around.) Plus, those kinds of food tend to be pretty expensive, and I'm all about saving $$ on food. I'd rather have a new Lilly.

This or soy cheese...hmmm. 

One product that I highly recommend for vegan and non-vegan pantries alike is called Nutritional Yeast (gross name, not gross taste). You can find it on Amazon.com or Vitacost.com, it's inexpensive ($10-$15 for 22oz), and it's packed with tons of B vitamins, protein, and fiber. The best part? It tastes like cheese, and has somewhat of the consistency of grated Parmesan. I've used to to create Alfredo sauces, enchilada sauces, and all kinds of other recipes that called for cheese. Many of my recipes call for this, and it's so worth it. Buy it, love it, you won't regret it.

I ordered this kind from vitacost.com and it's lasted about 3 months. Ka-ching!

Ok now on to the recipes. I've created a vegan pizza that will make you want to keel over and die it's so delicious. Seriously. My non-vegan friends have said things like "I didn't know vegan could taste this good" and "This is the best pizza I've ever tasted." (I didn't pay them, I swear.)

It really is just that good. I've experiemented with making my own pizza dough, and it's come out beautifully, but I've also made this with store-bought (hello, SuperTarget!) crust.

Homemade whole wheat crust with pineapple, peppers, zucchini, onions, and olives

If you want to make your own crust (don't knock it until you've tried it!), follow my recipe for (Really) Easy Pizza Dough.

Store-bough Target crust with pesto, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, and spinach

Either way, once I have a crust, I brush it with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with nutritional yeast (probably close to 1/4 c.), spread on some pesto, and add whatever veggies are in my fridge at the moment. I don't have a pizza stone or anything (want to buy me one?), so my homemade dough is just spread out on a thin cookie sheet (see above). I pop that baby in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes and then sit back and relax as everyone coos over my Martha Stewart-like skills. 

Make it once without any cheese and see what you think. If you totally have to have it, then sprinkle a little on the next time. Considering a slice of cheese-only Dominoes pizza has 312 calories per slice, The Preppy Vegan version is much more bikini friendly. A slice of my homemade version above has about 140 calories, a ton of fiber, and an insignificant amount of fat, even if you put pesto on there. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? It is.